Simple Gestures
by NotFlyingWithOtters
Summary: Sometimes simple gestures are enough...  A collection of One-Shots, all B&B to do with simple gestures. rating my change.
1. A Letter

**New idea :D I hope you like it :)**

Sometimes a simple gesture was enough. A touch, a hug, a word. Something simple. The time in the cemetery, she had known when enough was enough. But did he? Today was the worst day of her life, the worst day she could think of; worse even than her parents disappearing and her brother leaving her for the foster system. Her father was ill; her brother was married and leaving her all over again. Her mother was dead. Sometimes you just needed something simple to make you feel better. So she sat in the middle of the floor, the letter clutched tightly in one sweaty palm as she read and re-read it, unable to let the news sink in. Her father's death sentence passed, not by the prison, but by the hospital. Terminal, stage four, colon cancer. She was losing both parents, and her brother was away on some island with no means of contact available until he got back.

She knew that this would draw attention to herself, and that somewhere, buried deep in her subconscious, she wanted someone to know this. Even Angela didn't know. Her eyes stung with the tears she'd been unable to shed, at least at work. Behind closed doors, it was a different matter. She would cry, cry until her head ached and it was hard to breathe. This was how it had been since she found out what was going on. He hadn't wanted to tell her, of course he hadn't. No one wants to tell their child that they're going to be an orphan. And even at over thirty, that was what she felt like – an orphan. She's lost her parents, found one and solved the murder of the other. But now she was going to lose them all over again, and the pain was too real, too raw. Russ had done his best to be a good brother, do the right thing, but what do you say to your sister when you know that your father's going to die? "It'll be okay, don't worry."? Of course not; you say nothing at all because you don't know what to say. She recalled an earlier conversation, something that had jolted her and left her here, just before Russ had left for wherever he was going.

'_Russ? You know about dad right?'_

'_I do Tempe, but what can I say? Whatever I can say will not make it better, I'm sorry Tempe. I know this is hard on you and it's hard on me too, but we can do this.' He had smiled through tears that were threatening to fall, giving her a reassuring pat on the shoulder._

'_I don't know if I can do this. Russ, I've only just found dad again, and after solving mom's murder case, I don't know what to do. I can't lose him, even though I know I will.' Tears sparkled in her eyes, and she let on fall, diamond-like onto her sleeve. _

'_You just have to come to terms with it.' Then she had begun to get angry, angry at how blasé and collected he was about this._

'_I can't Russ, I love him. He's my dad, and if you gave a damn about anyone but yourself, you'd realise you loved him too and you wouldn't be like this.'_

'_Tempe! That's not fair! I love dad, you know I do!'_

'_So start acting like it! I love him Russ, and he's going to die slowly and painfully in hospital whilst you swan off and live it up with your wife. Are you ever coming back by the way?'_

'_That's not fair! And yes, I am. I'll be back in two weeks.'_

'_Dad could be dead in two weeks!'_

'_You wont be able to get hold of me, but Tempe, I promise that when I get back I'll call you when I get back for an update.'_

'_You selfish twat.' Her words were full of venom and she turned away, tears still twinkling in her eyes._

_'Tempe wait!' She ignored him and kept walking, putting as much distance between herself and him as possible._

She was still sat on the floor when Booth came in, clutching a case file in one hand and a tray of coffee in the other. He dropped the coffee and case files when he saw her, tears slowly streaming down her face as she read the crumpled letter in her hand. The coffee splashed, unheeded, to the floor, the puddle of steaming brown liquid spreading rapidly and filling the doorway. The sharp tang of coffee was rising through the air, and somehow, miraculously, nobody noticed. He dropped to his knees beside her and just sat in silence with her, not even touching her. After a while of silence, she leaned sideways and rested her heavy head on his shoulder, his reliable steadiness keeping the tears from falling again. The simple gesture was enough to give him the courage to snake an arm gently around her shoulders and hold her to him, a loose embrace. That simple gesture made her want to pour her heart out to him, but she stayed quiet until the bustle of the corridor had faded and everyone was doing various tasks elsewhere.

'What happened?' Two words with so much meaning behind them, two words that simultaneously made her and broke her.

'Max, my dad…' She started, but couldn't make herself finish. She fell into a deep silence and just rested her head against his shoulder, taking comfort in the familiar solidness of him. Booth said nothing to her, just stayed beside her, kneeling uncomfortably on the carpet-tiled floor. The coffee was drying now, the dark liquid becoming tacky, like blood as it dried.

'Your dad?' He prompted after a long silence filled with false starts and unfinished sentences.

'My dad he… he has cancer. Incurable, untreatable, horrific cancer. He's going to die and there's nothing I can do, for all the science in the world there's nothing I can do for him and I feel so helpless. I know this is, ridiculous, but after more than thirty years, when he dies, I'm going to feel like an orphan.' She swallowed down the choking tears and began again, unable to stop. 'He's my dad Booth; there's no one left to turn to after he dies. Russ is married, you're moving on and my mother's dead. I love him so much, and now he's never going to see me married (if that ever happens) or his grandchildren. And there's nothing I can do about it.' She finished with a deep breath and re-read the letter, crumpling it more in her hands. Booth didn't speak for a long time, he didn't need to anymore, and he didn't need to say anything to her. Instead, he leaned across her and kissed her softly, wiping the tears away with his fingertips.

'It'll be okay.' He whispered as he stood up and left, resting his hand on her for fractionally longer than he would have. The simplest gestures mean the most.

A touch.

An embrace.

A kiss.

Love.

Maybe she would finally be able to let go. And simple gestures lead up to complex gestures.

**What did you think? Please tell me :D**


	2. Smiles

**I fail one-shots ¬¬ So this is a collection of them :) All to do with simple gestures :D Enjoy…**

**I do not own Bones, if I did, Bones and Booth would be a couple already. And David Boreanaz would be mine :P**

This time it would be different, this time it would be better, and it would be a smile that changed it all. A smile to make it work, and sometimes, just sometimes, a smile is all it takes. Booth resolved that this would work this time, that this philosophy that had taken him seconds to work out would help him win her heart and make her see what she was missing. This time it would work.

Booth was walking down the corridor, an insanely stupid grin plastered all over his face. Brennan thought bitterly that it had something to do with his latest girlfriend, some tall, blonde with deep green eyes that wore enough make up for all the armed forces in world war one to have hid behind beneath the barrage of German machine guns. The latest girlfriend also liked to wear skin-tight clothes with designer names and carry expensive handbags. She assumed a cheerleader in high school, scraping through on the influence of her coach. Wrapped up in these bitter thoughts, she didn't realise how close to him she was until she had ploughed right into him and sent a bundle of carefully stacked papers flying all over the hallway. Resigned, she knelt on the floor and began to gather up the strewn papers, her hands shaking as she shuffled them into a messy pile. She shoved them into Booth's arms and swung round, stalking down the corridor away from his incredibly attractive, but right now irritating grin. She felt his eyes on her back all the way down the corridor, the soft red sweater she was wearing suddenly feeling remarkably warm and tight fitting.

'Good morning to you too.' Booth mumbled, a smile once again on his face as he watched her stalk down the corridor, the normal sway of her hips making him laugh softly under his breath.

'Morning Booth.' Angela walked past him, a sketchpad in one hand and a selection of artist's pencils in the other.

'Hi Angela.' Angela continued down the corridor, passing Brennan, who seemed to be taking an inordinately long time to reach her office. Which is because Brennan was cursing the latest girlfriend savagely in her head. The blonde haired green-eyed girl that had a sense of fun and humour that Booth could understand. Everything she wasn't. She supposed it was her fault for letting Booth go, and that he really had moved on from her; and although she never would admit it, she missed it. She hadn't moved on from him, and she guessed she never would, she would never give up on him. Deep in her heart she knew she'd always love him, the FBI agent she'd let go because of the blind panic she'd felt. She hadn't moved on, that much she knew to be true. She had blown her chance that night outside of the institute, a mixture of panic and instinct had made her close up to him, push him away. And now she would have to carry that pain around with her, locked inside her heart, behind the scars and pain of losing her mother. She had just been so scared of having a relationship with someone she worked with, or having a relationship with anyone at all. She reached her office and turned her head as she heard a smug:

'Morning.' Coming from the direction of her door. She was surprised to see him there, the grin wiped of his face as he saw the expression on hers.

'Damn you.' She muttered, 'Damn you to hell.' It was almost silent, and he didn't hear it, but he cocked his head slightly.

'Hmm? What was that?'

'Nothing.' She snapped, standing up and pushing past him in a bid to get to the lab, away from him.

**oOo**

Booth wasn't grinning because if his now ex-girl, he was grinning because he had decided what he was going to do later on that day, During the day he had made a conscious effort of smiling at Brennan every time he had set eyes on her – and had decided that it was creeping her out slightly. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. He also knew, aside from being slight wary, that she was becoming irritated with him. She was deliberately ignoring him, walking the other way when she caught a glimpse of him in the corridor, the red sweater she was wearing standing out considerably; which of course, made him smile even more. She kept trying to avoid him at every possible opportunity, and he just kept the irritating smile plastered on his face.

'Bones?' He called as he cornered her by her car, leaning lightly on the open door.

'Booth? What do you want?'

'Is my smiling annoying you slightly?'

'Whatever gave you that idea?' She replied acidly.

'Oh I don't know, maybe because you've been avoiding me all the time?'

'Well yes, insanely so.'

'I'm insanely annoying?'

'At this very moment? Yes.'

'Why is smiling a bad thing?'

'Because it's about your girlfriend, whoever that may be.'

'Well, you'd be wrong. Something that doesn't happen very often. It's not about her at all.' Brennan was taken aback by this, her mouth still slightly open. Booth softly raised his hand and pushed it closed with his finger, still smiling, but a warmer, truer smile. The motion seemed to snap her back into reality.

'So why then? Or am I just missing the point?'

'because I just wanted to say…' Booth trailed off, unsure how to phrase it. 'You look really beautiful today.'

'What?' She stared at him, uncomprehendingly.

'You look beautiful today, really and truly you do, I'm not joking. I think it's that sweater.' He smirked and earned a slap from her.

'Well… thank you.'

'No problem Bones. Any time in fact.' He smiled again and made to turn away, but she grabbed his sleeve and pulled him to face her with a sharp jerk.

'Booth, did you mean that? I mean really and honestly?'

'What do you take me for?' He mocked outrage and earned a weak smile from her. 'Ha! Smiles are infectious it would seem!'

'What?'

'Never mind.'

'Oh… then, thank you.'

'As I said before, no problem.' Booth turned away again, and this time Brennan didn't know what to do; she had nothing more to say, and anything she did say would sound desperate. Booth turned back for a split second, but she had already turned and was getting into her car. She was hugging herself as she eased herself into the seat, even though it wasn't remotely cold. He made a spontaneous decision and ducked to her height. She looked up at him and found his lips pressed firmly to hers. Surprised, she paused for a second, but only a second, and gripped his lapels in her hands, pulling him closer to him with all the strength she could muster.

A smile can be all it takes, Booth mused as he walked away, one hand pressed to his lips that were still tingling from the ferocity of her kiss. A smile from someone who loves you, and they're yours.

**Random end I know, expect more soon, including a really sad one :(**


	3. HoldMeTightly

The road opened up wide ahead of Booth's car, heat waves shimmering off the jet-black surface. Then suddenly a car was hurtling towards them, the silver paint reflecting the light as it came crashing towards them. Brennan could gauge the distance and watched frantically as Booth desperately tried to turn the wheel. But the car was moving too fast, and as Booth was turning, it hit them side on, rocking the SUV on it's wheels. There was a screech of metal on metal. A scream as paint was scraped from the side. A bang as the nose of the other car concertinaed the back doors of the black SUV. The crumpling sound as the doors folded in on itself. Then there was silence.

Brennan opened her eyes, a trickle of blood running down her cheek, pain blossoming in her temples where she assumed the cut that was slowly trickling blood was. She dashed away the rivulets and undid her seatbelt, the strip of fabric taught against her skin. Her neck ached, as though she had whiplash, but it wasn't as painful or tender as she knew whiplash was. Booth was awake, blood also on his face, running from a short, shallow cut just below his hairline.

'Bones? Are you okay?'

'I think just a flesh wound… you?'

'Just a scratch.' She nodded and wiped the blood away carefully with his thumb and leaned over to her, checking the stream of blood on her cheek. She raised a hand and wiped it away, the palm of her hand becoming streaked with fresh blood.

'We need to get out.' He told her, trying to prise open his crumpled door.

'We can't, the door's folded shut on itself.' She told him matter-of-factly, pulling her legs up onto the seat and trying to roll the window down.

'What are you trying to do?' He asked her, unbuckling his seatbelt.

'Get out of the window.' She told him as if it was the most obvious thing to do in the world.

'Good plan my man.'

'I'm not a man Booth.'

'It was a… never mind.' She wound the window down until it would go no further, and pulled the top half of her body out of the gap. She wriggled the bottom half out and leaped nimbly down to the tarmac, already heading towards the crumpled wreck stuffed in the back passenger door. Booth clambered out of his own window and followed her to the wreckage, keeping all his senses honed.

'Booth! I need some help over here!' The blood had dried on her temple in a brown splotch that had some of her hair stuck to it.

'Bones, you should know we can't do anything! Call 911.'

'I can't Booth!'

'Why not?'

'It's my dad.'

**oOo**

The scream of the siren was too loud, the noises of the traffic that occasionally droned past too quiet. She was in shock, a blanket around her shoulders and a warm drink with more than a drop of brandy held loosely in one hand. Booth sat beside her, loosely holding her hand in his warm one, wincing as her nails dug into the tender flesh of his palm. He shook her shoulder after a while as Angela and Hodgins pulled up in a silver car and she looked up, a haunted, dead look in her eyes. Angela ran up to her friend and slowly knelt down, Booth recoiling as soon as the younger woman reached them

'Sweetie?' Angela reached for her hands and took them both tightly in her warm ones. Brennan's cool, detached veneer wavered and Angela saw for the first time that her friend was shattered, anxious and just plain upset. 'Come with me.' She led her to the car and Booth followed, keeping one eye on his partner as Angela led her away.

'Angela? Can I come… just for… moral support.' Angela cast a glance at Brennan and nodded, letting Booth slip into the back seat beside his partner. Angela buckled her seatbelt in the front and started the engine as Hodgins strapped himself in, looking warily over his shoulder. Brennan sat stock still for a second, and then relaxed all her muscles, resting heavily on Booth.

'It's okay…' He whispered into her hair as she cried silently against his shoulder. 'They'll do everything for him, everything they can.' She didn't move, didn't feel like she could. Her heart was aching; she was crying without caring, her scientific veneer penetrated without warning or motive. She felt fragile. Booth slipped an arm around her shoulders and squeezed her loosely, hardly daring to touch her. When she didn't pull away, her drew her in closer, taking comfort from the familiar weight of her against him. As they approached the hospital, she tensed up again and sat up, wiping her eyes with the hemmed sleeve of her red sweater.

'Relax.' He gingerly squeezed her again and she touched her arm gently, unable to speak or even think past that gesture. They got out of the car, the silence evaporating swiftly as Angela and Hodgins went ahead to find out what they could. Booth took Brennan's hand in his own and together, steeling themselves, the walked slowly into the imposing building that was the hospital. The scent of disinfectant was strong when they entered, nearly overpowering them and making Brennan feel faintly ill.

'Um… Max Brennan… a road accident on the freeway.' Brennan struggled out, closing her eyes briefly.

'Oh honey… are you his daughter? I'm sorry…' The receptionist was a young African American woman with long hair that was tied tightly up in a plait that reached almost to her hips. 'He didn't make it… he, I'm sorry. He died on the way to hospital. They tried to resuscitate him for a full ten minutes, but nothing worked. I'm sorry.' Brennan nodded, dazed, still taking it in. She'd lost her father. Her mother. She was an orphan. And Russ was… well, that was the fundamental question wasn't it. Where was Russ? As usual, he seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth. The paramedic team entered, their blue uniforms stained with blood. Max's blood. Booth felt Brennan struggling to free herself from his grasp on her hand, and he grabbed her tightly around the waist to stop her from leaping on them.

'Booth! Let go of me!' Tears were streaming down her face as she clawed desperately at his encircling hands with her fingernails, drawing blood. He held on still, despite the multitude of fresh scratches that were being created by her nails.

'No. No Bones.'

'They didn't try hard enough! They didn't help him!' She screamed through her sobs and tears, capturing the attention of everyone in the reception.

'Bones! They did everything they could, as a scientist you must know that. Sometimes you do your best and it still doesn't turn out right.'

'But he's my dad Booth! I can't… I can't…' She turned towards him and buried her face in his chest as she cried, beating his chest with her fists weaker and weaker until she dropped her hands in defeat.

'Bones, I'm sorry. I really am.' The sincerity in his voice made her look up; and she was startled to see the tears swimming in his eyes. 'He was a good guy, Bones. Maybe not the best dad you could hope for, but her tried, god did he try.'

'I know… I just can't believe it's over.' She stammered out painfully through sobs.

'I know… but you will, you'll be fine. And one day you can tell your children about your parents, about their grandparents.'

'Booth… you know I'm never going to have children. Never. I can't do it.'

'Yes you can.'

'I can't. I'd be a lousy mom and you know it… it's sad that I can't carry on their legacy… but Russ will have children.'

'So will you, one day.'

'No, I wont, and that's what hurts.' She sobbed again, twining her arms around his neck and resting her forehead in the valley between his shoulder and his neck.

'Yeah you will.'

'No, I wont. I'm never going to find someone who loves me, and so I've stopped looking.' She murmured into his neck, hoping somehow that he wouldn't hear.

'Don't stop looking Bones. You owe it to Max.'

'No, the hospital owe me. They killed my father!'

'They did their best. That's all you can ask.'

'My dad is dead!' She exclaimed heatedly.

'I know. I know.' The second was more stretched out and quieter, almost that she had to strain to hear it. 'But that doesn't mean you have to stop looking.'

'Well who in their right mind would have me?' She kept her hold on him, his arms strong and familiar reassuring her with their firmness.

'I would.' She looked up, eyelashes still matted with tears, mascara running down her cheeks, her eyes puffy and red. He smiled. 'Your dad may be dead Bones, but believe me, you're more like him when you think.' She stared at him in shock, her eyes wide and red.

'I am…?'

'You are.' She smiled a little, hardly enough to be counted as a smile. And then, as though it was the most natural thing in the world, she arched her neck and kissed him gingerly on the lips. 'See.' He murmured through the kiss, his hands still holding her tightly around the waist.

'I see.' She backed away, still held firmly by him around the waist. 'I'm going to miss him.' She muttered, wanting to burst into tears again. He pulled her to him and rubbed her back as she rested her face in the valley that seemed made for her.

'So am I Bones, so am I.'

**Umm… yeah… sorta kinda existed… I hoped you liked (:**


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